Wescli - Heraldry and Heritage

A FIRE DESTROYED THE 1890 CENSUS
Whatever started the fire, it was a tragedy which affected the genealogical research of our ancestors who lived in the United States in 1890... forever.

The 1890 US Census held important statistical records of over 6 million residents of the United States.
On January 10, 1921, the 1890 US census general population schedules were stored in an unlocked file room in the basement of the United States Commerce Department. Even though there was a vault in the basement which was fireproof and waterproof, these 1890 census schedules were sitting in a stacked order, just OUTSIDE the vault on pine shelves. Space constraints for the US census records were becoming apparent at this time.

The fire was first detected by the building fireman, James Foster. Foster noticed smoke and reported it to the desk watchman who in turn notified the fire department. Because the ceiling of the basement was made of fireproof cement, the firemen had to cut holes in the concrete floor and pour streams of water into the basement. The fire was out by 9:45 pm that night.

The damage to 1890 census schedules was extensive. Sam Rogers, the Census Director reported 25 percent of the population schedules were destroyed, 50 percent had smoke, water and fire damage and he thought the documents might be salvageable. However, T. J. Fitzgerald, a clerk of the US Census Bureau, said the 1890 census records were certain to be absolutely ruined with no way to restore them.

In December of 1932, Chief Clerk of the Bureau of Census, sent a list of papers to be scheduled for destruction, to the Library of Congress. Included on that list, was Item 22 0 Schedules, Population, 1890, Original. The librarian at the Library of Congress did nothing to stop the destruction of these records as the list was forwarded on to Congress, who gave their ok to destroy the listed documents on February 21, 1933.
Reports show, the 1890 census was destroyed in 1935 but there was a small handwritten note found in the files of the Census Bureau which states: "remaining schedules destroyed by Department of Commerce in 1934."

In 1942, a bundle of fragments of 1890 census population schedules were found for Illinois by the National Archives. These were thought to be the only surviving fragments of the 1890 US Census Records. However, in 1953, The National Archives found further surviving fragments. These included fragments from Alabama, Georgia, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, and the District of Columbia. These fragments were microfilmed and today, this is all that remains of the 1890 Federal Census Populations Schedules. There are about 6,160 names salvaged from the original 1890 census records which would have held over 6 million names.

“I had a little bird/ It’s name was Enza/ I opened a window/ And in-flu-enza.” It was a bizarre rhyme repeated by children as a game all over the country in late 1918 and into 1919. In an apocalyptic time of warfare, terror and famine, now came the pestilence. The Spanish Flu outbreak became one of the worst epidemics in history, with an estimated 50 million dead worldwide, including more than 500,000 Americans. Texas would not be spared this disease as thousands were infected.

From my Mom…

Okay so when I started out this is how I did it on dates. My mom came to Dallas when she was 18 she met my dad soon after. She told me that she was 18 years older than me when I was born. So if I was born in 56 that would make my mother's birthday about 19 37 or 36. Knowing my mom like the fudge on the age I would put her birthday at December 21st 1935. My dad was about 3 or 4 years older than her so I would put his birthdate as 1931 or 32.

Russell Reynolds, Dusty Reynolds dad shows up as a little boy I'm about 2 or 3 in the 1910 census making him born about 1907. John Reynolds was about 21 when Russell was born.
That would make him born about 1886.

John seems to show up as the oldest of Jim and Lizzy Reynolds children so I would assume Jim was about 20 to 25 when John was born. So if we use the 20 Jim Reynolds was born in about 1866 to 1860. Which would mean even though he would be very small he would have seen some of the Civil War. We know that Jim shows that his family had been in Texas since the early 1800s.

So through the man it would be Jim, John, Russell, and Clytee/ Dusty

Continued research…
The name Reynolds was a Norman import to England, from Reginald or in Old French Reinold. The earlier root is the Old Norse Rognvaldr, comprised of the elements ragin meaning "counsel" and wald meaning "rule." Reynold was a Viking leader who harried the English and Irish shores in the 10th century.

Name variants have included Reynold and Reynell. The Irish MacRaghnaill derives from the Gaelic of Randal or Reginald. This name became anglicized to Reynolds.

In England… The Reynolds name first appeared in Somerset where they were granted lands after the Norman Conquest in 1066. William filius Raunaldi is recorded in the Domesday Book.

In SW England... A Reynell family originally from Cambridgeshire transplanted themselves to Devon in the 14th century where they were substantial landowners. They were described as "men of great credit, fidelity, and service to their kings, country and state in peace and in war." Both the Reynell and Reynolds names were to be found in Devon. A Reynolds family in Plympton produced the great 18th century portrait painter Sir Joshua Reynolds.

The naval Reynolds came from Cornwall. They made their home in the late 18th century at Penair near Truro. And the Reynolds name was also prominent in tin mining at St. Agnes, starting possibly with William Reynolds who was born there in the 1680’s.

Owen Reynolds, a yeoman farmer from Melcombe in Dorset, was five times its mayor in the 1550’s. His nephew Edward benefited from the patronage of the Earl of Essex and died in 1623 in London a rich man.
In Kent… A Reynolds line dating back to the 16th century in East Bergholt in Kent included descendants who were among the early immigrants to America. From a later naval family came George Reynolds who got himself involved in the Chartist movement in the 1840's. He founded a radical newspaper, Reynolds's Weekly Newspaper, which became popular. The paper continued in a different guise as Reynolds News until 1967.
In East Anglia… The birth of Thomas Reynolds was recorded at Great Chesterford in northern Essex in 1569. He appeared in court in 1598 after a brawl with a neighbor. One family history dates back to the marriage of James Reynolds and Susannah Wood at Little Bardfield in 1711. In the churchyard of the nearby village of Great Sampford there are a number of Reynolds gravestones of the late 18th and 19th centuries.
Just across the border into Cambridgeshire were the Reynolds of Castle Camps and the Reynolds of Leverington:

Sir James Reynolds, a Cromwellian general, had taken a lease on the Castle Camps estate as a safe retreat for his family during the Civil War. His grandson Sir James was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1727.

while Richard Reynolds was rector of Leverington near Wisbech in the 1670’s. His son Richard, born there, became the Bishop of Lincoln. He acquired Paxton Hall in Huntingdonshire in 1730 where the family remained for several generations.

Lancashire. There was a Reynolds family in Lancashire which inherited the Strangeways estate near Manchester in 1711. Francis Reynolds from this family distinguished himself in naval actions in the West Indies and later took over the family estates at Tortworth in Gloucestershire (his home there is now a country house hotel).

Lancashire received an influx of Irish Reynolds in the 19th century. Mary Reynolds from Mohill in county Leitrim settled her young family in Manchester after the death of her husband during the famine years. Her letters recently published, The Reynolds Letters: An Irish Emigrant Family in Late Victorian Manchester, present a story of Irish immigrants making good in industrial England at that time.

In Ireland… The Reynolds name came to Ireland at the time of Strongbow in the 1200's. These English invaders took the titles of Earls of Cavan, Lisburne and Mountmorris. A later English invasion in the 17th century gave rise to the Reynells from Devon of Reynell castle.

However, the largest numbers of Reynolds have been home-grown. From early times the lands around Lough Rynn in county Leitrim were owned and settled by the MacRaghnaill clan. Sean na gCeann or John of the Heads, so called for beheading his rebellious clansmen, was their chief in the late 1500's.

The next century saw the English taking over Leitrim and the Irish, including the McRaghnaills, being gradually pushed out. A second exodus occurred at the time of the potato famine. Even so, nearly half of the Reynolds in Ireland today come from Leitrim. The Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds was born in nearby Roscommon.
America. The English Reynolds in America came first. Early Reynolds settlers in New England were Robert and Mary Reynolds and their four children who got there in 1630. Christopher Reynolds from Gravesend in Kent arrived in Virginia in 1622 on the Francis and John. Their family line is documented in Stephen Tilman's 1959 book, The Rennolds-Reynolds of Virginia and England.

Members of this family were subsequently involved in the freighting business in upstate New York. They later moved west:

• P.G. Reynolds became a mail contractor and stage operator in Dodge City for the trails heading south to the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles.
  
  
• his brother Milton, who adopted the writing name of Kicking Bird, covered Indian council meetings as a roving reporter and became an advocate for Western settlement.

Lesson 1 - History
I knew some about heraldry but having it here for us to take part in lead me to not only read the lessons here but go into much more research. Let me tell you now, there is a LOT out there! I know and have many of my family’s crests. And going on this adventure gave me a lot of insight into the crests I have known and looked at for years.

My daughter has even gotten into it. LOL

All this in mind, I have an idea of the things I should put into my own crest for MOoK. I want to blend aspects of my family into it but I want to make sure it says something about me. As I believe it should since it will be my crest.

My family has some nobility in it, mercenaries; have gone on crusades, held castles and there are some who have no heraldry as we would understand by these lessons like my Native American heritage. Yes, I am a mutt. LOL
Speaking of the Native American in my lineage, I have decided to use a Bear charge. Then I want to place in aspects that reflect not only the monastic aspects of my life but also my military exploits.

Lesson 2 - Shape
My Escutcheon is going to be a heater shield. I debated about using the kite shield to symbolize the earliest records of my family and their exploits in the crusades; but, even those that were there at that time used the heater shield. So if it was good enough for them, than I see no reason to deviate.

Lesson 3 - Colors
Even though my crest is predominately green (vert) and gold (or) there are four major colors. Green, Black and Gold are the predominate colors in almost all my family crests. And each has significance. But I also wanted to add gold because of my life and adventures in Jediism and now here at The Monastic Order of Knights where my primary mission is elevation of spirit and mind and service to others including generosity.

Let me list the colors and their common meaning, what they stand for in heraldry.

Silver/White (Argent) Peace and sincerity

Gold (Or) Generosity and elevation of mind

Green (Vert) Hope, joy, and loyalty to love

Black (Sable) Constancy or grief

Silver for what I strive for, the affect I hope the path I choose will bring to others and myself. Gold is there to represent my own journey towards enlightenment and service. Green is for the love in my heart, the joy I hope to spread and to remind me of the loyalty I not only owe others but myself as well. It is also the major color in most of my family crests. And last but definitely not least; because it plays such a role in my history, black. Black is there to show the constancy my family has but to also tell about the griefs we have suffered. Especially the Native American side of my family and their history.

Lesson four - Divisions
Believe it or not, I went through several field divisions until one finally spoke to me. Most my family crests are either a solid color or have a fess but only one has a division. And that division just didn’t feel right. I chose to use the party sinister bend.

There are two fields created by this bend and they represent my ties to the old world and the new.
This division, in heraldry, is also representative of a knight, commander; and/or signifies defense or protection.

Lesson five – Ordinaries and Subordinaries
The escutcheon is divided into two fields by a party sinister bend. And those are separated by a sinister bend fess. This separating fess is supposed to represent the grief that has been between the two fields, being the old world and the new. It is also to remind us of the grief that was, and still exists, in the old world, new world, past and present that we have to combat. That we have to constantly combat and that I have tried to do my whole life. It also represents the transition period between when I was a child and when I became who I am now.

Lesson six - diminutives
In the field representing my ties to the old world I chose to use a Chequy diminutive. This particular one stands for constancy. In the grand scheme of things, year 1147 really isn’t that long ago. But that is just when my family shows up in written history we have now and can confirm. But compared to how long the country I live in has been the country it is now, that’s a pretty good long time. So I wanted to add something that shows the constancy and longevity of my European heritage.

Lesson seven – charges
The Bear! The bear is not a common animal charge used in European heraldry. That said, it is used from time to time. Traditionally the bear represents Strength, cunning, ferocity in the protection of one's kindred. I chose this to represent an aspect of my heritage that does use the bear in their symbolism quite often, the Native Americans. And because my heritage is also a lot Irish, Scotch-Irish I chose to use the couped head that is more common when they do use the bear. But… this is a modern heraldic crest so I took some liberty and gave the bear head a more modern look. That is to represent me, in my era, in America.

Things in my heraldic crest not covered in depth in the current lessons.
Like I said before, I did a LOT of research once I started this journey and found a lot of information. A lot. And that was a lot of fun. These are great lessons that can get one interested and set one out on a fun adventure of exploration and learning.

I am going to cover the helmet, torse and mantle and why I chose what I did.

Helmet...
First, the helmet. All my family crests have helmets and I was curious as to their meaning. Especially since not all the helmets were the same in ever crest. We do have high nobility in the family history but it is not common. We do have a lot of knights and esquires, dukes and barons. And I have been knighted, So… I have to have a helmet! I am not high nobility so I can not have a face on helmet. After a lot of research I feel the one that fits best is the closed face, side facing helmet.

Torse/Mantle...
There is a lot of confusion, miss-information and speculation as to the purpose of the torse. I have been trained in medieval combat and combat and I have researched not only heraldry but armor, weapons, customs and clothing of the times when heraldry came to light. From what I can figure, the torse, even though it is separate from the mantle in heraldry, looks to be the part of the mantle that holds it to the helmet. I believe, from everything I have read and what I have learned over the years, which the torse/mantle came into existence during the 12th century at the time of the crusades. (about the time that heraldry really came into its own and began to standardize with people that specialize in heraldry) The mantle is thought to have been worn to keep the elements off the armor and help protect the wearer from injury. Which the latter of that seems a bit farfetched to me. I believe that during the time of the crusades there were lots of peoples from all over Europe coming together and large armies of amalgamated troops were forming. The mantle was most likely used to signify persons of importance on the battlefield. Not unlike the crest of the helm of the Roman Centurions helmet would have been used. When a Knight went on crusade he didn’t go alone. There would be a small contingent of man-at-arms, pages, squires, smiths, cooks, and so on and so on that went with him. For the people directly under his command it would have been paramount that they be able to identify him on the battlefield and be able to aide or fight alongside him. Especially as they were just as dependent on him as he was on them for survival both on and off the field of battle.

And so it would have been added to the first heraldic crests of the time. And then, because people are so similar to… well, you’ve all heard the phrase “monkey see monkey do?” Others wanted it added as well. It probably became nothing more than an transition piece after time. Especially since during the time of the joust tournament knights had elaborate helms that would incorporate a head piece, not unlike a hood ornament on the classic cars of the 50’s and 60’s and many luxury cars like the Bentley still have LOL


There are predominately two types of mantle used although one is the clearly the primary. That is the mantle that has flowing streamers and bits going in every direction and is very pleasing to the eye. And the smooth, plain looking mantle. The first is the way it is because it is supposed to represent the mantle being cut and torn as if it had sustained damage in battle. This eventually became very elaborate and even tassels and the such were added. The latter was commonly used by clergy. IE, not cut up in battle so undamaged. Perhaps it was to show their providence and protection from god as to remain unscathed? But that is an unsupported guessed based on nothing more than speculation.

Because I was a soldier and I have fought, I chose the torn mantle. But because I am now part of the monastic order I thought the uncut would also be appropriate. Since Heraldry is not what we actually wore but symbolic, if you look closely you will notice that the cut and uncut mantels are both displayed in my heraldic crest.

Order…
Duh, I put in the current emblem for the order I am in. The symbol for the Monastic Order of Knights.

Motto...
Sta Hic Sumus. As best as I can figure, that is Latin for “Here we stand” I first came across that when I was watching Game of Thrones and it really struck a chord with me. I said, “These are my people!” LOL I’ve said for years that I really don’t care what someone does so long as there stuff doesn’t interfere with my stuff. But the second it does I will end it with extreme prejudice. It is like the proverbial line drawn in the sand. I will tolerate a lot but there is a limit to that tolerance and I will not cross it or be forced to cross it. There comes a point in everyone’s life when they say “this far and no farther” The “we” shows unity in that stance. Rather I am joining someone else to stand for what can not be crossed, it’s a family matter and we stand together or it is nothing more than my beliefs and my conviction, there is a line that must be held. And I will hold it.